Glossary of Key Greek Words Greek words are transliterated and given in the forms they have as headwords in LSJ (e.g. heuriskō ‘to find’, literally ‘I find’). Other forms of the same word found in the text are noted under the headword unless they differ significantly. These… Read more
Bibliography Adam, J. 1902. Republic of Plato. 2 vols. London. Adams, H., ed. 1992. Critical Theory Since Plato. Rev. ed. Fort Worth. Annas, J. 1981. An Introduction to Plato’s Republic. Oxford. ———. 1996. “Plato.”… Read more
Acknowledgments For my menfolk, with love I started writing this book when I was a graduate student at the University of Chicago Divinity School. There, I found welcome support for my comparative project, even though the scholarly norm tended increasingly toward highly specialized studies. In my… Read more
Note on Texts and Translations The classical sources that I have cited are found in the following editions, unless otherwise specified: The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra, ed. and trans. R. P. Kangle, 2nd ed., 2 pts. (Bombay, 1969–1972). Dhvanyāloka of Ānandavardhana, ed. and… Read more
Introduction. Defining Epics through Comparison An epic is an extensive poem that has been composed in an elevated style, that treats a pivotal epoch in the past of a particular people, and that endures because it both entertains its audiences and educates them on issues of ultimate… Read more
1. The Epic Identity of the Iliad and Odyssey: Pindar and Herodotus’ Lofty Legacy The Homeric and Hindu epics appeal to their audiences as religious instructors by dint of addressing important existential issues in entertaining manners. Each pair of poems offers a couple of complementary solutions to… Read more
2. The Epic Metaphor of the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata: Ānandavardhana and Rājaśekhara’s Expedient Influence Like the Iliad and Odyssey, the Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata are now considered to be epics. Yet this label does not suit the Sanskrit poems as well as it does the Greek… Read more
3. Listening to Achilles and to Odysseus: Poetic Kings on the Ideal of Kléos in the Homeric Epics The contrasting construals of kléos in the Iliad and the Odyssey are embodied by the poems’ bickering protagonists, Achilles and Odysseus, in the first song that Demodocus sings in… Read more
4. Hearkening to Kuśa and Lava and to Nala: Poetic Monarchs on the Ideal of Dharma in the Hindu Epics The Hindu epics differ further from their Homeric counterparts by featuring rulers who are not merely similar to poets, but actually are poets. Yet these figures are… Read more
Conclusion. Affirmative and Interrogative Epics So far, I have discussed the Greek and Sanskrit epics largely separately. In Chapters 1 and 2, I examined the ways in which the Greek poems and their Sanskrit counterparts classified themselves, and I considered the effects that the reclassification of each… Read more
